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Castor oil and opium: the pharmacopoeia of childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Lynette Finch
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Extract

In January 1878, Mary Anne Fogg's evidence at the inquest of the death of her infant daughter, Louisa, was recorded as follows:

My name is Mary Anne Fogg. I am the mother of the deceased infant. The deceased seemed sickly for the last two days. Yesterday afternoon she got worse and took fits. I gave her two doses of castor oil at an interval of four hours. I also gave her two warm baths one in the afternoon and one in the evening … I thought she was getting better. This morning between two and three I laid her down gently beside me and fell asleep. I was completely worn out for want of sleep. Yesterday evening I gave the deceased a teaspoonful of honey. When I awoke I found the child was dead beside me.

Type
Health
Information
Queensland Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2: Volume 3 Special Issue 02 (Young in a Warm Climate) - July 1996 Editor: Lynetter Finch , July 1996 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

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References

Endnotes

1. JUS/N57; 78/31, QSA.Google Scholar

2. Berridge, V. and Edwards, G., Opium and the People (London: St. Martin's Press, 1981).Google Scholar

3. Manderson, D.R.A., “The first loss of freedom: early opium laws in Australia”, Australian Drug and Alcohol Review, 7 (1988):439–453. See, also Royal Commission on Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods, Report, Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Papers, [CPP], 1907–1908, Division II, pp.71–86.Google Scholar

4. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, Division V, pp.245–318.Google Scholar

5. JUS/N58; 78/114, QSA.Google Scholar

6. For details on moves to regulate baby-farmers, including the impact of the 1905 Queensland Infant Life Protection Act, see M. John Thearle and Helen Gregory, “Child Abuse in Nineteenth Century Queensland”, Child Abuse and Neglect 12 (1988):91–101.Google Scholar

7. JUS/N62; 79/87, QSA. Infants Preservative was a mixture of bromide and opium.Google Scholar

8. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.330.Google Scholar

9. Dr William Murrell quoted in Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.423.Google Scholar

10. JUS/N113; 84/610, QSA.Google Scholar

11. JUS/N92; 83/208, QSA.Google Scholar

12. JUS/N92;83/326, QSA.Google Scholar

13. Smith, F.J., ed. Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence (London: Churchill, 1905), p.454.Google Scholar

14. See, for example, Australian Medical Journal 8 (1863):148–149.Google Scholar

15. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.76.Google Scholar

16. See for example, Evan Willis, Medical Dominance (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1983); T. Pensabene, The Rise ofthe Medical Practitioner in Victoria (Canberra: ANU Press, 1980).Google Scholar

17. Manderson, D.R.A, “Iatrogenesis? Medical power and drug laws 1900–30”, Australian Drug and Alcohol Review 7 (1988):462.Google Scholar

18. Manderson, D.R.A., “The first loss of freedom: early opium laws in Australia”, Australian Drug and Alcohol Review 7 (1988):441.Google Scholar

19. JUS/N90; 83/27, QSA.Google Scholar

20. JUS/N13; 66/188, QSA.Google Scholar

21. Age and Bulletin, quoted in Manderson, “The first loss of freedom”, p.440.Google Scholar

22. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.77.Google Scholar

23. Dr Ham, B. Burnett was appointed on 17 October, 1900. He took up the position on the day the Health Act, establishing the Queensland Department of Health, came into effect, 1 January, 1901. Blue Book for the year 1901, QVP, 1902, II, p.68. His letter to the Secret Drugs and Cures Royal Commission is printed on pp .423–425.Google Scholar

24. QVP, 1883–1884, p.1702.Google Scholar

25. JUS/N113; 84/610, QSA.Google Scholar

26. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.424.Google Scholar

27. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.330.Google Scholar

28. Adelaide Adveniser, 1906 cited in Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.329.Google Scholar

29. Ritter, T.J., M.D., The People's Home Medical Book (Toronto, Sydney: The Oceanic Publishing Company, 1924), p.425.Google Scholar

30. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, pp.339, 356.Google Scholar

31. Secret Drugs, Cures and Foods Report, p.366.Google Scholar

32. JUS/N13; 66/188, QSA.Google Scholar